Jude Law 2004.

I'm one step closer (eh, Closer, eh?) to watching all 2004 films with Jude Law. We watched Alfie tonight. I didn't know anything about it. It was pretty entertaining. Very stylish, but almost overboard on the life's lessons and very predictable. Nevertheless, it entertained.

That's

Alfie
Closer
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
and
I Heart Huckabees

seen

and

Lemony Snicket's...
and
The Aviator

yet to be seen.

Update.

I took an optional exam today to (hopefully) raise my current A- in Abnormal Psychology to an A by replacing one of my test grades. It was fairly easy, so I'm optimistic.
However, it's official- I've lost the 4.0. I got a 92.25 A- in Psychology of Personality (and he rounds up, and 93 was an A), but I'm not really affected by it. I'm pretty sure I ended up with a 99 in Latin or something crazy like that. Bah.

Today, there were at least 50 cars surrounding the small exterior of this dorm. People parked on the grass, on the cement, nearly on the doorstep. People filed in and out.

Uhh

I am recently disappointed in Rivers Cuomo. When I went into my Latin Final Exam, this kid, Alex, walked over and plopped down a silver disc with handwritten "Weezer, Make Believe" on it. Having discarded all illegally obtained music material last year when I gave my speech on piracy, I immediately felt like telling him I didn't want it. But, it was just sitting there. Waiting to be played. I asked him how it was, he said "Well, the first time listening to it, I was like WHAT!? But, then, it gets really catchy".

So, I listen through it. The main downfall are the lyrics. And this coming after Rick Rubin says he thinks Cuomo's writing here was his most personal and Karl giving full-fledged support to the record despite the single, "Beverly Hills". I have decided that the lyrics are not that different from previous albums, it's just that weezer has lost its signature wit. Now, Rivers is telling us directly stuff like "You're my best friend/ and I love you" and "I have many fears about rejection/ I have many memories of pain" instead of showing us "So I sniff and lick your envelopes," "At ten I shaved my head and tried to be a monk/ I thought the older women would like me if I did," and even "In Santa Monica, where tricks are for kids". I mean, the lyric "tricks are for kids," as corny and juvenile as it is is beating the crap out of all the lyrics on Make Believe. And I'm not even big on lyrics! I've said before, I just go for the full effect of the song on my hearing, but it's hard to not respond to

"When you're out with your friends
In your new mercedes-benz
And you're on drugs.
And you show up late to school
Cuz you think you're really cool
When you're on drugs."

The music, you say? Not the best. It certainly is diverse (ballads???), but that doesn't mean it's great. They've gotten into this whole palm-muted sound that I'm just not buying. The best parts on the disc are the instrumentals and guitar solos when everyone's going strong and it's sort of beautiful. The rhythm section is really toned down, which is a shame because I think that's weezer's secret weapon. It pretty much made Maladroit, and saved Pinkerton from being a whiny, emo production.

Anyway, I'm typing so much about it because I'm partly organizing my thoughts for my CD review of Make Believe (...C- now, but it could change over time), and partly because it's a really big deal. I guess. Since college, I've been exposed to sooo much music, but there are still those bands and records that are pretty much just a part of me. And I want more of them. I guess.

Anyway, mom said she had a big book of Federal jobs or some crap for me, and maybe I can start planning a little more ahead. A little. Still going to the Mountain Goats on Saturday, driving home Sunday, working through the summer, etc. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna save up a "Vinyl Fever fund" this summer so I can get back and just blow all this money at the best store ever. Seriously. Quite an update.

Ugh.

Smoosh.

Props to Matt for this one.

So, there's this band named Smoosh. At the ages of 11 and 13 (guess which one's the drummer... that's right, the younger one... ala Hanson), these two blonde girls have played shows with Rilo Kiley, Pearl Jam, Presidents of the United States of America, Jimmy Eat World, and Cat Power. Check out that website! Awesome!

According to this fabulous interview, the two were mentored by the drummer for Death Cab for Cutie.

PM: Do you want to be a musician forever or do you want to do something else when you get older?

Asya: I want to keep doing this--

Chloe: Yeah same!

Asya: --I want to keep doing this for my whole life I guess. Until I'm a grandma.

PM: Until you're a grandma?

Asya: Yeah.

Chloe: Not until you're a grandma!

Asya:Yeah, rockin' grandmas. That'd be cool.

This is pretty awesome.

Check out an mp3 or two.

So,

I have interviews lined up for my next two articles, I went to get some words from local record store owners for my other article that's due pretty pretty soon, but I ended up looking around vinyl fever for an hour, and accidentally watching a performance by some band, No Offense, there. Not good. But, I did manage to get The Unicorns. Good. Then, I found a 99 cent steal, a CD by Brainiac (called smack bunny baby). I'm still adjusting to it. I left without talking to anyone for my article. Then I came back to the dorm to listen to the discs.

I think I'll just write the whole record article tomorrow, then pack up, move out, see the Mountain Goats on saturday (wooooo!) and go home.

*Update: I have been informed that the band I saw at Vinyl Fever today was called No Address, not No Offense. Then I found out that they were recently signed to Atlantic Records. Why? ... Why? It was almost total crap. Ugh.

Whoa.

While recently doing some searches on Yahoo! I thought of the bright idea of searching Lay Down Your Weapons. Surprisingly, the first hit was for our purevolume site.

This has excited me to no end.

Note: ...From the realization of this to the time of this posting... the search results have changed. I swear it was true though, Matt saw it happen too.

...*sigh*... my 15 seconds of fame is up...

*Hey! It's doing it again! Everyone check. (This post is quickly becoming rediculous.)

FS, AF

I went to the first ever meeting for A&E at the FSView HQ this evening. Apparently, weekly meetings are gonna become a regular-type thing in the fall. They made a few good statements about the section getting away from just covering concerts and events, and opening up the area to a more magazine-type style with different features and such. I noticed that the people that went in with me to start writing in February were no longer writing. And there were some newbies. Met D.C. Reeves, head editor of everything, or something, and he kept claiming he "wasn't as big an asshole" as his mass e-mail made him seem, but he didn't do anything at the meeting to hint otherwise.

My upcoming article involves The Firebird Band with one member from Braid... the one that wasn't in Hey Mercedes... Christopher Broach.

Then I went to see Agnostic Front at the Beta Bar (because I was put on the guest list, first time ever). Yeah, it was okay. I'm glad I didn't shell out $14 for it, but it wasn't as awful as I thought it would be.

I got up at 4 o'clock today. PM.

Suit of Lights

Listening to a new release from a new group Suit of Lights to do an FSReView.

Uhh, is this song "Goodbye Silk City" supposed to be Pachelbel-esque...? If not, (it's under the "hear" section of their website) I just don't know. What else does it remind me of (spec. the vocal melody...?)?

I guess the album (or group) hasn't offended me too much so far.

I went to this event gathering for grad students presenting their studies in Psychology. Saw the Dr. Zwaan and his wife and the coolcool grad students I work with. Even had two free donuts, coffee, cookies and a free lunch complimentary of the Psych. department. I'm pretty sure I was the only undergraduate kid there. In jeans and a t-shirt.

DiG!

So, I went to see this movie, featuring Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols, and now I'm here, clicking on all the little underlined words that say 'all tracks included in a single zip archive'. Lucky for me, this guy is just as crazy as the movie portrayed him, since he posted all of his albums online when I was fit to buy one or two just to see what the big deal was about.

Yeah, the movie was pretty good. Very humorous at times, and it explored the whole relationship between bands, different views on major label deals, and drugs. Check it out if you want to see about Anton, the guy who claims to have made a 'major change' in radio airplay, cuz when '[h]e started out, Pearl Jam was on the radio, and now you hear the White Stripes'. Whatever that means.

Hmmm

I recently got a vague email from my contact for Agnostic Front telling me I'm on the list and I'm set up for a tentative interview with them at 7 PM on the day of the show.
My article on Agnostic Front ran today.

(That reminds me: SNMNMNM's music melts your mind, not your ears, On Tuesday: It Dies Today, Radio 4 to broadcast from Club Downunder, Rainbow Concert lights up the stage, The Peels EP FSReView)

Anyway, I guess I'm on the guest list for Agnostic Front's show, which has four bands playing and is $14. That's pretty cool, I guess I'll go.

I guess that makes up for this one:

Justin,

Thank you coming in for an interview Monday. Unfortunately, we cannot
offer you a job in the theatre at this time, but we will keep you in
mind for other SLB job openings in the future.

Ha! Amateurs! You spelled "theater" wrong.

This world is full, oh so full of crashing bores. And I must be one, cause no one ever turns to me to say...

Kafka.

I just read through Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis". I can't explicitly explain what I enjoyed about reading it, but it was very absorbing. To my surprise, not much was happening, but I still enjoyed it- possibly the construction of the story, the minute details.

Then I shopped around for explanations. I found a speech byVladimir Nabokov on the subject. Fortunately, the speech is nearly as long as the story itself! Anyhow, I'm reading through that now, and he's presenting some interesting material...

Let us therefore examine what reality is, in order to discover in what manner and to what extent so-called fantasies depart from so-called reality.

Let us take three types of men walking through the same landscape. Number One is a city man on a well-deserved vacation. Number Two is a professional botanist. Number Three is a local farmer. Number One, the city man, is what is called a realistic, commonsensical, matter-of-fact type: he sees trees as trees and knows from his map that the road he is following is a nice new road leading to Newton, where there is a nice eating place recommended to him by a friend in his office. The botanist looks around and sees his environment in the very exact terms of plant life, precise biological and classified units such as specific trees and grasses, flowers and ferns, and for him, this is reality; to him the world of the stolid tourist (who cannot distinguish an oak from an elm) seems a fantastic, vague, dreamy, never-never world. Finally the world of the local farmer differs from the two others in that his world is intensely emotional and personal since he has been born and bred there, and knows every trail and individual tree, and every shadow from every tree across every trail, all in warm connection with his everyday work, and his childhood, and a thousand small things and patterns which the other two—the humdrum tourist and the botanical taxonomist—simply cannot know in the given place at the given time. Our farmer will not know the relation of the surrounding vegetation to a botanical conception of the world, and the botanist will know nothing of any importance to him about that barn or that old field or that old house under its cottonwoods, which are afloat, as it were, in a medium of personal memories for one who was born there.

DUDE!

FRIDAY APRIL 22
Tallahassee, Florida
Florida State University
On-Campus

...who, you ask?

ANDREW W.K.!!!

The poster said "free tickets for cingular wireless users"... but it's on the union green...

!!!

Yeah, boi!

I get to write an article on "Tallahassee Record Stores" (!!!) for the orientation issue (unfortunately, I won't be around to get that issue in print...). This means, yeah, Vinyl Fever interviews. ... I guess I have to mention stores other than Vinyl Fever, huh? ... Maybe in the margins.

And I'm gonna keep writing over the summer from the East Coast. ... I should get someone to keep a full copy of each issue with one of my articles in it like I've been doing so I can be all meticulous and whatnot... any takers?

I just finished my article on Agnostic Front like 40 minutes ago when it was "due" two and a half days ago. Then we got this email from the head head editor of the paper and he's all like "no late articles, run spellcheck, and no making up facts, I'm being a hardass [c'mon, what kind of a name is D.C. Reeves? Sounds like a superhero-- D.C. comics, christopher reeve]," but if Matt's (A&E editor) alright with it (he was), I'm alright with it. But I'm still gonna try to not have to get extensions again- that's just frustratin'.

Next article? Metalsome Monday at Big Daddy's. ...*sigh*...

Goals

Goals for summer '05:

Find a full-time, mind-numbing job.
Write a concept album about something cool.
Invest time and money into learning how to skateboard.
Read classic works of literature.
Read the dozens of books I already have but have not read.
Read books recommended to me by esteemed readers (already have a running list).
Indulge in bands: reading about, listening to, watching in concert, buying CDs from.
Indulge in movies: reading about, watching, especially independent/small time releases.
Learn more yo-yo tricks.
Learn more juggling tricks.
Program beats.

yeah, survey, yeah.

1.What time did you get up this morning? 8:30 AM EST
2.Diamonds or pearls? I like that comic strip Pearls and Swine, and I'm pretty sure the title comes from a saying, but I don't know what that saying is.
3.What was the last film you saw at the cinema? 'At the cinema'? What is this, British? Does the Independent Filmmaker's Films count? Then those would be it. If not I've have to say Songcatcher, which I'd rather not say... or remember.
4.What is your favorite TV show? The Simpsons.
5.What did you have for breakfast? Only Coffee (cafe latte mix). Yeah, I've learned my lesson from that.
6.What is your middle name? PAUL (pretty tight name, I must admit)
7.What is your favorite cuisine? Currently Greek. I will rarely ever turn down a good chicken pita.
8.What foods do you dislike? Seafood, and, wow, I didn't realize we all didn't like mushrooms.
9.What is your favorite cd at the moment? Weezer, Weezer (1994), as usual (listening to it now... why do they gotta front?).
10.What kind of car do you drive? I would list the color here, then 'Buick Century', if I knew what color to call it, that it. (Maroooon?)
(This one wasn't numbered, and I don't feel like changing the numbers on the remaining questions, or moving this question to the end and adding a number. I'd rather type an extended convoluted parenthetical comment about it, mostly because I like the word 'parenthetical') Favorite sandwich? I would say the monte christo, but that would be a lie. I just wanted to bring it up to brag about being able to finish it the first time I've ever had one. I don't know the real answer. ... Open-faced Club Sand Wedge?
11.What characteristics do you despise? Phoninessessess.
12.Favorite item of clothing? My treasured orange PEZ shirt (wearing it right now)
13.If you could go anywhere on vacation where would it be? Yeah, I'm gonna have to go ahead and say England, too.
14.What color is your bathroom? I have a ... where is the...?
15.Favorite brand of clothing? Can't think of anything sincere or funny for this answer...
16.What was your most memorable birthday? That one where Brandon, Caleb, Chip, and whos-its-whomever else ended their birthday set with Cake's "Ain't no good"... at least I think that was my birthday.
17.Where were you born? 'St. Joseph's Hospital, Lorain, OH' -- I'm gonna use that response, although I'm not sure about that first part.
18.Favorite sport to watch? Skateboarding.
19.What fabric softener do you use? Inflammable means flammable? What a crazy language!
20.Coke or Pepsi? I don't like dark colas.
21.Are you a morning person? No.
22.What is your shoe size? 11.
23.Do you have a pet? Shadow-retriever.
24.Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with your family and friends? I saw this Independent film fest and there was this one documentary about this guy that is going to drive from tally to NYC with his 3 friends to propose to this girl. It was very good, and had a good flow, revealing complications like she was engaged to another guy, and the original guy met her online. And funny too "the element of surprise is the biggest thing you have going for you now." It made me want to film my life and edit it until it becomes funny.
25.Is love all it is cracked up to be? Jimmy cracked corn, and
26.What makes your soul soar? Music... my band. Filling out surveys instead of writing articles or sleeping or reading or sleeping.

Thatsa long survey!

TBL.

I think I watch this movie waaayy to much:

The Stranger You scored 100%

You are the omniscient narrator! Your perfect performance is every bit as stupefying as any I've ever seen. You are both a hero and a noble role model for anyone who aspires to a true understanding of this spectacular work of art. But, I'm rambling again... I've done introduced you enough.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 98% on Lebowski lore

Link: The Big Lebowski Test written by JoeCoolJoe on Ok Cupid

Concerts.

6 bands, 4 days.

Wed. 4/6, Tallahassee, The Red Elvises: "Your faaavvvvooorite band!"
Lyric: "We gonna rock this joint, we gonna roll this joint, we gonna smoke this joint... until we sound like Pink Floyd."

Thurs. 4/7, Gainesville, RX Bandits: "You know something's wrong when the female to male ratio isn't equal here in the middle. If that's happening, it means you're being too much of a tough guy when you're dancing."
Lyric: "We've had enough of these politician's wars / All we need right now is love... (ain't no hippy shit!)"

Fri. 4/8, Melbourne, Bye-bye Birdie: "There are a few words I never wanted to hear in this house, and 'puberty' was at the top of the list! 'Mussolini' was second!"
Lyric: "Gray skies are gonna clear up / Put on a happy face."

Sat. 4/9, Orlando, CAKE: "If we play that song, if we play 'The Distance,' will you stop screaming at us?? Let's make a deal, we play that song right now and you leave and shut up. If we play it and you don't leave, I'll stop the show. I'll do it. I don't really care- I'm fuckin' crazy! ... Nah, it's not worth the risk."
Lyric: "If I threw my guitar out the window, so far down / Would I start to regret it? Or would I smile as I watched it slowly fall?"

***

No, I didn't count Bye-bye Birdie as being three bands; the other three bands were opening bands for RX Bandits and Cake, and they're not worth mentioning.

I think the trip was well worth it, though I didn't think Ticketmaster tacking on $12 in fees (including a "US Postal fee"... when they didn't even mail the tickets- I picked them up at the booth) was very cool.

Cake sounded pretty good live, considering they've changed lineups over the years, it sounded very clean and nice and good. Yeah, and opening with "Daria" was a good move. :)

Portraits of Laughter and Joy.

These two are unrelated:

There was laughter. A faint, tickling laughter coming from nearby—around the corner, perhaps, in the small shop nearby. It was a vibrant sound, intriguing the people passing by; a purely joyous expression uninterrupted by breaths or words or even other laughs; an exuberant fluctuating wave of rapid giggles and uninhibited gasps of delight. A grown woman’s laughter that sounded very much like a small child’s unabashed squeals of indulgence when he has discovered a wonderful new experience in the world. It vibrated gently through the air in the street, emitting a cloud of happiness that saturated the passersby, one by one, with the woman’s joy and pulled them (for just a moment) into the realm of exciting new experiences that they remembered from their own childhoods.

***

He sat, cross-armed, slouching, with eyes aware but barely open, scanning the crowd. Watching the people. He noticed a small girl running about, shrieking in twinges of delight. Smiling, she stomped around the food court with unabashed excitement, running into people and spreading small moments of joy to them. Anyone who saw her would stop and smile, their eyes gleaming, faces lighting up in response to the vigorous spirit of the youth before them. Then, the moment passed; they would continue walking and soon their faces would slump back into the dour expressions they held before their joyful encounter.

Simply amazing.

Across my near two years at FSU, I've heard people from various administrations outright diss SCE for their incompetence/inefficiency/unprofessional behavior. High-level people from the Club Downunder, the Student Life Cinema, and now the FSView (and Matt said the WVFS [radio] people have mentioned it too) have ranted to me about how awful SCE is and how the people are impossible to work with and how SCE takes credit for everything, but provides nothing. Until now, I've taken these people's words for it.

Now, I have firsthand experience.

I contacted the concert coordinator for SCE over a week and a half ago, asking for any information on the Battle of the Bands they're hosting this year, and I had to send another email this week to prod some more. So I get a response yesterday that they would "finally decide the lineup" last night and let me know today, even though I told him my deadline was tomorrow morning.

Then I had to contact some band, Presence, 's agent to try and talk to them about their "headlining performance" at the battle of the bands. This is the response I got:

Call DJ Stange at XXX-XXXX. He is the nucleus of the band. He will answer all your questions.

Funniest. Response. Ever.

He didn't set up a time, just sent me the phone number of one of the guys in the band. Yeah, so....

I'm going to see the Red Elvises tonight and I'm not gonna write this article, nor conduct a crappy interview with a crappy band (I already got an extension on it, my editor even mentioning that I wouldn't really have to write a piece for it if "worst comes to worst").

Then, I'm going to see the RX Bandits tomorrow night... for free! (...in Gainesville)... (...hopefully).

THEN, I'm going home, and then going to Orlando for CAKE this saturday (missing the Wrens, but ohs well).

THEN, I'm coming back Sunday to write a crappy article for another crappy band that's doing a show at the beta bar. That one is due Monday morning.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet.

Sin City.

SinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCity
SinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCity
SinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCity
SinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCity
SinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCity
SinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCity
SinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCity
SinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCity
SinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCity
SinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCitySinCity

***

Saw it last night.
It was brutal.
It was savage.
It was all style, nothing else.
It was wonderful.
I'd give it an 8 out of 10, and would gladly see it again.

Edutainment: The Rise and Fall of Hip-Hop's Intelligentsia

April Foos Day.

The rains came yesterday and cancelled all of our plans. We, nevertheless, remained resolute and managed to have fun regardless.

Instead of having tons of free ice cream at the social (which was cancelled), we went to momo's.
Instead of seeing the circus (cancelled), we went to see the Life Aquatic.
Instead of riding the ferris wheel and playing carn-y games (the outdoor activities for 50s night were cancelled), we stayed at the SLB and watched this guy make awesome balloon animals (daffy duck!), took pictures in a "50s booth" (we weren't in costume), had a session on swing dancing, and some people limbo-ed and hula hooped.
Then, we went for milkshakes at the 50s diner, and breakfast for $1 at the union (mmmm, unlimited tater tots!).

Then I slept for about 11 hours. Sweet.